


Not Happiness Exactly

by ssa_archivist



Category: Smallville
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-18
Updated: 2003-08-18
Packaged: 2017-11-01 09:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/354835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssa_archivist/pseuds/ssa_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>POst-Exodus, Clark and Lex find some breathing space.    Written for Alax's Fifty Ways to get Fifty Lays challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Happiness Exactly

## Not Happiness Exactly

by showerMat

<http://www.livejournal.com/users/msdaccxx/>

* * *

_Not Happiness Exactly_  
by showerMat  
August 2003 

Disclaimer: Not mine and not for profit 

Author's notes: Written for Alax's  Fifty Ways to get Fifty Lays challenge. Also, my first fic. A million thanks to Dana for the beta and my LJ friends for the support. You all rule. 

Feedback: Yes please! daccxx@hotmail.com 

* * *

2.55 a.m. 

"The fuck?" 

"Hey, kid! Kid, wake up. You want your phone call or not?" 

"The fuck? Where am I?" 

"Met PD, Fifteenth Precinct. You okay to stand up?" 

Fifteenth Precinct? Well that explained the smell; piss, bleach, unwashed bodies. How in the hell had he ended up here? Slippery flashes of memory - a bar, a club, another club, tequila, ketamine - it hurt to think. 

"Number?" 

"What?" 

The desk sergeant sighed, exasperated. 

"Number. What number? You asked for your phone call." 

Number? Clark's eggshell-delicate brain drew a momentary blank, then, from nowhere a string of digits. He recited them aloud even as he struggled to remember what they actually were - and where his shoes were, and his belt and his coat. God, his head hurt! 

Okay, oh-five-oh-seven-six-two-nine-four-three. A half smile. Lex's cell - not the business one, the private one, the one not even Lionel knew about. Yeah, Lex would sort all this, whatever all this was, though he was going to catch hell for calling at three a.m. 

Then memories crashing back, vivid, relentless, overwhelming - the ship, the baby, his mother, Lex. - 

Oh God, Lex. 

His legs gave, he felt himself slump to the cold tiled floor, back against the scuffed wooden bench, head pressed to his knees, hands over his ears. Please, no. Make it not be true, please make it not be true. 

"Look, are you taking this call or not? You think I have all night here?" 

Clark raised his head as the desk sergeant thrust the telephone towards him. 

"Hello?" 

"Clark?" 

"Lex? Lex! Jesus, Lex, is that you? You're - you're - where the hell are you?" 

A soft chuckle. 

"Hospital. What's going on? Guy on the phone said he was a cop." 

"I think I've kinda been arrested." 

Another chuckle. 

"Stay right where you are. I'll send someone." 

"Lex, God, I can't believe it's really you. They said - on the news - everyone said...." 

A choking sob. 

"Shh, hey c'mon. S'okay. I'll send someone." 

* * *

3.50 a.m.

Lex's Someone was a fast worker. 

"Sign for your property. Shoes, belt, watch, ring." 

"It's not my ring." 

" It's with your stuff. You came in wearing it." 

"It's not mine. I don't want it." 

Shrugging, the desk sergeant tossed it into a cardboard box marked "Unclaimed Property" and went back to his lukewarm coffee and paperwork. 

* * *

4.30 a.m.

"Hey" 

"Hey yourself." 

"You okay?" 

"Malnourishment, dehydration, hence the drip. Another knock on the head." 

"Helen?" 

"I don't know, Clark. She wasn't on the plane." 

"She what? Then what..?" 

"I don't know yet, but I will, I will." 

Tentatively, Clark lifted the almost impossibly fragile-looking hand from the coverlet and held it between his own. 

"No one knows you're here yet, do they?" 

A crooked smile, a soft exhalation. 

"No, I need some breathing space. How about you? I hear half of Smallville is looking for you." 

"How do you _ I forgot, you know everything." 

"Oh, do I? I wish." 

Then, gently, 

"Clark, I'm sorry about the baby." 

Clark closed his eyes, tried to blink away the moisture, pressed his lips to Lex's fingertips. 

"First the baby, then you. I thought I was going mad. My little sister - I would have had a sister." 

"Shh, Clark. I know. Believe me, I know." 

Clark laid his head on the coverlet and scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hand. Gentle fingers caressed his temple. 

"I'm sorry, Lex. You must be exhausted." 

"A little tired. Clark, you need to call your parents." 

"Tomorrow." 

"It is tomorrow." 

"Later then. Let me stay here with you." 

"Sure, Clark. Whatever you want." 

Lex's eyes drifted closed. Clark remained where he was, watching the first rays of sunlight climb the pale grey paintwork, Lex's fingers gently fisted in his hair, and for the first time in months he felt not happiness exactly, but something - something other than sadness and chaos. Consequences would come with the daylight, but not yet, not now. Now was just this, not happiness exactly but something. 

Safety. 

Peace. 


End file.
